JAMAICA-President of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) Senator Kavan Gayle says the union has written to Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) seeking a meeting to discuss the airline's decision to cut the jobs of some 130 customer service representatives at the Norman Manley and Sangster International airports in May.
Gayle said the union is hoping to hear from the Trinidad-based carrier soon, failing which it will be seeking the intervention of the Ministry of Labour. On Tuesday, CAL announced in a media statement that a meeting was held with employees based in Jamaica to inform them that the airline's customer service operations based in Kingston and Montego Bay would be outsourced to a third-party service provider.
Gayle said the BITU, which represents flight attendants, had heard nothing further about the plans and as such letters have also been sent to Transport Minister Dr Omar Davies and Minister of Labour Derrick Kellier, seeking their intervention in the matter. "The Government is somewhat silent on this critical issue, where you have a deal which was to preserve the jobs and over 100 persons will lose jobs, and so someone in Government needs to speak out," Gayle said.
According to Gayle, about 50 customer service agents at Sangster International and 80 at Norman Manley International Airport were informed at a meeting of the planned job cuts, however, no further details were provided. He said it was not clear who the new handling agents would be and whether they would be able to take on any of the persons who are to lose their jobs.
Jamaica Observer